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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 536 ..

MRS CARNELL: And why did they not? Because they had 24 hours, Mr Moore.

Mr Moore: They had enough time to have a look.

MRS CARNELL: They had 24 hours. Let us talk about the effect the Bill will have on small business in the Territory. I want to quote from a letter that I received yesterday from an operator of a printing firm. I am sure many people in this place have had similar letters. He said:

If the Picnic Day is abolished, it will mean that Canberra will have the same number of public holidays as New South Wales and one more than Victoria. Surely this is fair enough. We told our 85 staff three weeks ago that they would not be getting the public holiday and that the company would be accepting the umpire's decision. We have not had one complaint. Our staff realise how tough it is and know how lucky they are to have jobs.

They are not my words, but those of an employer in Canberra. How about these comments from the Motor Trades Association:

Recent decisions by the Commission in relation to specific ACT awards are designed simply to import some consistency between jurisdictions and between awards, and to standardise on 11 public holidays a year. Particularly in the light of the economic and employment climate in the ACT at this time, we believe it would be irresponsible, simply with the stroke of a pen, to legislate for yet another public holiday. Surely the 4 public holidays and two long weekends already enjoyed in March are sufficient for all of us. Both as individual families and as a community, we must learn to live within our means, and as the cost of a public holiday to the ACT economy would be in the millions of dollars, we simply cannot afford it.

This is an important statement, because it is about time that some people in this Assembly woke up to the fact that this Territory is not living within its means. Just read the Auditor-General's report. At a time when we can least afford it, Mr Berry's response and the response of the Labor Party to these tough economic times is to legislate for another public holiday, one that was not taken away by the Government.

Mr Berry: John Howard caused the problem here.

MRS CARNELL: It was actually ruled on by the Industrial Relations Commission. (Extension of time granted) Mr Berry just said, "It was the Howard Government". I do not think the Howard Government actually controls the Industrial Relations Commission. I think there would probably be times when they would like to. It simply was not the Howard Government; it was the Industrial Relations Commission that ruled on this issue. There is no way he can claim that my Government or John Howard took away this holiday. The reality is that the Full Bench of the Industrial Relations Commission made a ruling. I want to conclude by quoting from the Hansard of 6 December 1994. The quote is:

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